William Hopper’s The Heathen’s Guide presents a light-hearted, at times comical, overview of the world’s religions. It’s a short book, and thus doesn’t capture every detail about every little sect or cult in existence, but it spends a chapter on each of the biggies. The book is laid-out in a logical order: the chapter on Judaism leads to a chapter on Christianity leads to a chapter on Islam.

During the February 28th episode of the CBS reality show the Amazing Race, contestants Monique and Shawne (billed as “Moms/Attorneys”) attempted to curry favor with the prime deity of the New Testament. During the leg’s Roadblock, teams were required to lasso a target 18 feet away and pull it towards them to receive their next clue. Though Monique and Shawne arrived at the Roadblock prior to several teams, they were still trying, without success, to lasso the target after all other teams had come and gone.

REVIEW:Waiting for Armageddon details the lives of several Americans who live in expectation of a rapture. And, as the film stresses, these evangelical Christians expect the End to arrive very, very soon—one young girl was nearly in tears as contemplated the future she was never going to have. Later, a mother pointed to her son, saying he would never grow old enough to graduate high school, or even to get a driver’s license.

Atheist, humanist, secular humanist, Bright, freethinker, secularist, naturalist: these are all words I've heard people use to describe themselves. I recall the diversity of identifiers used at the Atheist Coming Out Day last year. I was reminded of this diversity when an issue came up with the newsletter for a secular organization: Should "humanism" be capitalized?

Our February Meeting opened with the election of officers for the 2010 year. All of the candidates were unopposed, and were elected by voice acclamation: President, August Berkshire; Associate President, Laura Hutt; Chair, George Kane; Associate Chair, Steve Petersen; Treasurer, Brian Knoblock; Secretary, Rick Rohrer; Directors-at-large Karen Burke, Mike Haubrich and Cody Peterson.